bilingual belt

The bilingual belt is a term for the portion of Canada where both French and English are regularly spoken. It extends from northern New Brunswick in the east through southern Quebec, Eastern Ontario, Northern Ontario and Southern Manitoba. Major cities in the belt include Moncton and Edmundston in New Brunswick, Montreal and Sherbrooke in Quebec, Ottawa and Cornwall in Eastern Ontario and Greater Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay in Northern Ontario. Outside of this belt in Quebec the population is overwhelmingly francophone, while in the rest of Canada, outside this belt the population is overwhelmingly anglophone. The term was coined by Richard Joy in his book Languages in Conflict, where he found that outside of this belt languages were becoming more firmly entrenched, but within it both were thriving. This was especially noticeable in Western Canada, where the once significant French speaking populations were vanishing. See also: Acadia, Franco-Ontarian, Anglo-Quebecer, Bilingualism in Canada.

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